Imagining everyday life in "the missions" probably evokes heart-wrenching scenes like malnourished children with soulful eyes posed at entries to humble shacks, barefoot women bearing heavy loads along muddy roads -- and clerics in white cassocks and sandals.

Though not without some foundation, these are caricatures. They tend to reinforce stereotypes of the mission Church as confined to remote regions, far away from cell towers and shopping malls, and very different from us. Read More